Ella Cruz and the fight against chismis-information

Ella's statement drew a lot of personal attacks. Did we go too far? (Image: 8list.ph)

Earlier in the year, director Darryl Yap announced that he has been working on a new historical dramedy that tells the story of the Marcos family’s last 72 hours in power amidst the 1986 People Power Revolution. It will allegedly be told from the perspective of a “reliable source.”

In a cast interview, Ella Cruz—who plays Imee Marcos, daughter of Ferdinand Marcos—remarked that “history is like chismis.” She explained that history is filtered and biased, which makes it difficult to tell how much of it is real.

While discussing her empathy towards another side of the story, she also stated that the family of the late dictator were “struggling [in the] last three days! Kahit naman sila struggling even right now, di ba? So, paano kaya iyon na there (was) so much pressure on their side during those times?” 

(They’re struggling even right now, aren’t they? So, how about when there was so much pressure on their side during those times?)

Not the first, nor the last

Cruz’s statements from the interview reflect a skepticism towards the way that Philippine history is traditionally taught in schools—the little left that is taught at all. The K-12 system in the country is notorious for removing Philippine history from the core curriculum of araling panlipunan (social studies) at the secondary level, despite the Department of Education defending its “faithful” implementation of the curriculum that was taken from previous administrations.

Educational standards like these reap questionable fruits amidst a culture of fake news. The chismis vs. history discourse is not the first incident involving someone making a statement on history that was met with overwhelming backlash. A few months ago, “MaJoHa” trended online after a contestant of Pinoy Big Brother failed to answer a question about three Filipino martyred priests from the Spanish colonization, better known as GomBurZa.

The internet attacks, hurts itself in confusion

Unsurprisingly, Cruz was subject to criticism for belittling history as a discipline. Historians and other public figures have even responded to her statement to clarify that history is based on fact, while chismis is not necessarily the same. But people all over social media milk moments like hers like there’s no tomorrow. From genuine expressions of concern to numerous memes to digging up her old posts, the backlash quickly turned personal.

And before you say “dasurv,” others have also spoken about seeing things from Cruz’s side. Popular podcaster Inka Magnaye speculated that she was probably “just repeating what everyone else around her said. This is how disinformation works, after all.”

Just as she has contributed to the mountain of disinformation online, we can’t deny that she’s been a victim of it, too. After all, history professor Jose Victor Torres validates her perspective by stating that historical chismis does indeed exist, albeit with limited credibility on its own.

So how do we have a civil conversation about this with someone we’ve just canceled, someone whose cringe tweets we’ve just brought back from 2010?

With the opposition’s history of pushing people away, it’s no wonder that the Marcoses’ call for unity pulls them closer towards a narrative that paints them as victims of an unjust power grab. More than anything, this incident exposes the failure to include those deep into the disinformation iceberg in the uphill battle against historical revisionism.